Friday, March 27

Cameron McCasland and Chiller Cinema, are the recipient of the first ever Vasaria Public Service Award for their work on the "Go Green With Dr. Gangrene" campaign. The Classic Horror Film Board bestowed this special humanitarian award at the 7th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards earlier this week.

The Rondo awards, named after 1940s character actor Rondo Hatton, is a completely fan voted event that promotes scholarship and preservation. It honors the best in film, television, and publishing in the Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy genres.

Nashville’s Physician of Fright Dr. Gangrene sent kinds words over his blog which stated, “Want to send a big thanks out to everyone who worked on these psas - our director Cameron McCasland, who went above and beyond the call of duty promoting the heck out of these things, as well as writing two of them - Michael Creason who shot and edited the psas - all our actors, including Nurse Moan-eek and our zombies Chuck and Earl - and our crew members, especially Eric Sparks. And an especially huge thanks to Michael Hook and the CW58 for running these things on Saturday afternoons during the kids block!!”

The series pits Dr. Gangrene against monsters, in a style reminiscent of classic Saturday afternoon movies, while presenting a message of safety and environmental awareness. The shorts have garnered national attention after becoming a viral sensation on the web.

This special citation is the first of its kind, and gets its namesake from the fictional city of Vasaria, which was plagued by Monsters in the classic Universal Studios films "Ghost Of Frankenstein" and "Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man".David Colton, who oversees the Rondo awards, said of the project. "Cameron McCasland, Dr. Gangrene, Nurse Moan-Eek and the gang showed that monsters may be menacing, but when crunch time comes they can be good citizens, too. Whether urging fans to pick up litter, wear their seat belts or go green, the PSA campaign in Nashville was audacious and original and reflected well on the entire horror community."Other Rondo recipients included The Dark Knight, Joe Dante's Trailers From Hell, Rue Morgue Magazine, Basil Gogos, and writer Tim Lucas. A heartfelt award for Monster Kid Of The Year was given to Joe Moe "For his quiet, constant and unwavering stewardship of Forrest J Ackerman's final decade of life,” The winners were announced live via web cast.

McCasland and the Chiller Cinema crew will be presented with the award, alongside other Rondo recipients at a ceremony in Louisville, KY during the twentieth anniversary of WonderFest on the weekend of May 16-17, 2009.

The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards are presented by the Classic Horror Film Board and overseen by USA TODAY front-page editor David Colton. For more information, and a complete list of winners please visit www.rondoaward.com

VASARIA PUBLIC SERVICE AWARD

Which is pretty darn cool, because we put a ton of work into those PSAs. We didn't win either category we were nominated for this year - we came in second in the Fan Event voting, and third in the Best Horror Host category.

Want to send a big thanks out to everyone who worked on these psas - our director Cameron McCasland, who went above and beyond the call of duty promoting the heck out of these things, as well as writing two of them - Michael Creason who shot and edited the psas - all our actors, including Nurse Moan-eek and our zombies Chuck and Earl - and our crew members, especially Eric Sparks. And an especially huge thanks to Michael Hook and the CW58 for running these things on Saturday afternoons during the kids block!!

Here's to a great Rondo season and hoping next year's awards as fun as this one was!

Saturday, March 7

Got a nice shout out from Gary Macabre over at Blogue Macabre - he apparantly used his voodoo powers to look into the abyss of the internet and see that I had visited his site, and gave me a nice thank you for visiting. Thank YOU, Gary, for the kind words and for keeping such a rockin' spooky blog site - good luck in the Rondos my friend!